Awesome Pool Party Games

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Looking for some really cool pool party games? Turning your backyard into an outrageous wet-n-wild playground for your kid’s birthday party is a piece of cake (birthday cake that is!) with our list of awesome pool party games.

A pool party is one of the coolest of all summertime parties! But if you don’t have access to a pool, check out these Awesome Water Games for Kids (no pool needed!) for some surefire ways to keep your party guests “chill-in”. If you’re throwing a pool party don’t miss these absolutely awesome Wet-n-Wild theme party ideas.

Safety first! – Before the first toe is dipped in the pool, review the safety rules with all your guests (parents too if they’re attending). Some important rules to mention before the pool party games get going are — No running, no pushing or dunking each other, no jumping on others, no diving or jumping in shallow water.

Adequate adult supervision is a must an any kid pool party. You may want to consider assigning a dedicated “Pool Watcher” to keep a close watch at the pool (i.e.: hire or recruit someone whose only job is to watch the pool for the duration of the party).

Don’t Miss Our Wet-N-Wild Pool Party Games

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Marco Polo

Style: Competitive

Type: Pool Party Games

What You’ll Need:

• A swimming pool

How to play:

1. Have all the players get in the pool.
2. Chose one kid to be “Marco”.
3. Have “Marco” close his eyes and count to ten out loud and then shout “Marco!”. All the other kids must respond by saying “Polo!”.
4. Keeping his eyes shut “Marco” listens to hear were the voices are coming from and tries to tag one of the other kids. “Marco” can call out as many times as he wants and all the other kids must respond.
5. Once “Marco” tags a player then that player is the next “Marco” and the games starts again.
6. If a kid doesn’t say “Polo”, “Marco” can call their name and accuse them. If all the other kids agree that kid automatically becomes the next “Marco”.

Variations:

• Big Toe – “Marco” must stay in the pool but all the other kids can get out of the pool as long as they keep some part of their body (like a big toe) in stays in the pool. They still have to answer “Polo!” whenever “Marco!” is called out.
• Fish Out of Water – similar to the variation above, but here’s the difference – if “Marco” calls “Fish Out of Water!” the kid with the least amount of skin in the water is the next Marco. If more than one player is out of the pool, the last kid back in is the next “Marco”.

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Keep it Dry

Style: Competitive

Type: Pool Party Games

What You’ll Need:

• A swimming pool
• A small object (one for each player) that changes when it gets wet like a cotton ball or marshmallow.

How to play:

1. Give each player a dry object
2. Each kid must swim from one end of the pool to the other without getting their object wet.
3. The kid that finishes first and has the driest object wins.

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Butterfingers

Style: Competitive

Type: Pool Party Games

What You’ll Need:

• A swimming pool with a diving board or pool deck
• A beach ball

How to play:

1. One player jumps off the diving board.
2. Another player stands in the shallow end (or on the side) and throws the ball to the jumper.
3. The jumper tries to catch the ball and hold it until she hits the water.

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Mermaids & Seahorses

Style: Competitive

Type: Pool Party Games

What You’ll Need:

• A swimming pool
• Minimum of 5 Kids

How to play:

1. Select one player to be the caller.
2. Divide the rest of the players into two groups. Half will be Mermaids and the other half will be Seahorses.
3. Partner up the Mermaids and Seahorses and have them get into the pool. Have the Seahorses form a circle. Then have each Mermaid stand behind a Seahorse.
4. During the game the caller can shout out “Seahorses!” or “Mermaids!.”
5. If the “Caller” yells “Seahorses!,” then the Seahorses have to submerge and swim backwards between the Mermaid’s legs or “fluke.” Swimming clockwise around the circle and back under the Mermaid’s fluke and stand up. The last Seahorse to make it to her place is out and so is her partner.
6. If the caller yells “Mermaids!,” all Mermaids have to swim clockwise around the circle, mermaid-style (legs together) and back to their position behind their partners. The last Mermaid to make it to her place is out and so is her partner.
7. The last remaining pair wins.

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Sharks & Minnows

Style: Competitive

Type: Pool Party Games

What You’ll Need:

• A swimming pool

How to play:

1. Select one kid to be the Shark and the other kids will be the Minnows.
2. Have the Shark get into the pool and stand in the middle.
3. The Minnows stand outside the pool at one end.
4. The Shark yells out “Minnows!”, the must Minnows jump or dive into the pool and attempt to swim to the other side and get out of the pool without being tagged by the shark.
5. When the Minnows are tagged, the Minnows become Sharks and must stay in the water.
6. Again, the Shark yells out “Minnows!”, and the game continues like this until there’s only one Minnow left.
7. The remaining Minnow wins and becomes the Shark.

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Lucky & His Rainbows

This pool party game is a variation of Sharks & Minnows.

Style: Competitive

Type: Pool Party Games

What You’ll Need:

• A swimming pool

How to play:

1. Select one kid to be Lucky and the other kids will be Rainbows.
2. Have Lucky get into the pool and stand in the middle.
3. The Rainbows start out of the water on one side of the pool.
4. Lucky must close his eyes and yell out a color. Any Rainbow who’s wearing that color, must attempt to swim to the other side without being tagged by Lucky. If he’s tagged, he’s out.
5. The last remaining Rainbow wins.

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Seahorse Race

Style: Competitive

Type: Pool Party Games

What You’ll Need:

• A swimming pool
• Round inner tubes or “noodle” type floating toys (one for each player)

How to play:

1. Choose one player to be the Judge. The other kids will be Seahorse Jockeys.
2. Give each Seahorse Jockey an inner tube and have them line up at one end of the pool.
3. On the Judges word, “Go!,” the Seahorse Jockeys must race to the other end of the pool.
4. The first Seahorse to get to the other side is the winner.

Variation:

Noodle Race Relay

1. Use “Noodle” type float toys
2. Have the Seahorse Jockeys sit on the floating toys like they were horses.
3. Divide the kids into two groups and have the stand at one end of the pool.
4. On the word, “Go!”, one kid from each team has to jump in, mount their “seahorses” and race to the other side of the pool and back again. Then get out of the pool and give his “Seahorse” to the next kid in line.
5. The game continues like this until all every kid has had a turn.
6. The first team to finish the race wins the game.

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Salt & Pepper

Style: Competitive

Type: Pool Party Games

What You’ll Need:

• A swimming pool

How to play:

1. Divide the players into two equal teams and name one Salt and the other Pepper.
2. Have each team gather outside the pool at opposite ends and face each other.
3. The Salt team members must swim on the top when passing a Pepper team member. Likewise, the Pepper team members must swim under the Salt team members when passing.
4. Have a player from each team get into the water and hang onto the pool sides.
5. On the word, “Go!”, they must swim to the opposite side of the pool (remember the passing rule above).
6. The fist player to reach the other side gets a point for her team. Wait for both players to get out of the water, and have the next two get in.
7. Continue until all players have had a turn.
8. The team with the most points wins.

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Killer Whale

Style: Competitive

Type: Pool Party Games

What You’ll Need:

• A swimming pool

How to play:

1. Choose someone to be the Killer Whale and have him stand outside the pool.
2. Have all the other players jump into the pool and start swimming around.
3. They can’t touch the sides of the pool, in fact, they must stay three feet away from the sides.
4. Then the Killer Whale jumps in and swims leisurely (as Killer Whales do). The Killer Whale can’t tag anyone yet until he yells, “Killer Whale!”.
5. Then everyone swims to the sides for safety. Anyone touching the sides can’t be tagged by the Killer Whale.
6. If the Killer Whale tags anyone, then that player becomes the new Killer Whale.
7. If the Killer Whale isn’t able to tag anyone before they get to safety he remains the Killer Whale and the game starts again.

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Categories

Style: Competitive

Type: Pool Party Games

What You’ll Need:

• A swimming pool

How to play:

1. Choose one player to be IT and stand on the side of the pool facing away from the other players.The other players line up in the pool on one side near the person who is IT.
2. To start the game, have IT call out a category of any kind (e.g.: cars, colors, sports, flowers, cartoons, or anything that comes to mind).
3. All the other players have to think of something from that category. They can quietly tell each other what they picked, but shouldn’t say IT loud enough for IT to hear.
4. Next, IT begins to call out things from that category.If IT calls a player’s thing, then that player must swim to the other side of the pool as quietly as she can. Sometimes more than one player will have chosen the same thing so more than one player can be crossing the pool at the same time.
5. Here’s the fun part. If IT hears any player moving then she can jump or dive into the pool and try to tag them.
6. However, if IT turns around and everyone is still touching the side of the pool, then this is considered a foul and she must do whatever the group decides (e.g.: do a cannonball, or run around the pool three times).
7. If IT is successful, then the player who IT tagged becomes the next IT. Otherwise IT stays the same and the game continues.

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Water Freeze Tag

Style: Competitive

Type: Pool Party Games

What You’ll Need:

• A swimming pool

How to play:

1. Set the boundaries for the game (e.g.: the whole pool, the shallow end, even the areas surrounding the pool).
2. Choose a player to be IT.
3. When IT tags another player he can’t move. If he’s able to he must stand with his feet apart. The only way a player can become unfrozen is if another player crawls under his legs (if they are outside the pool), swims between his legs (if he’s in the shallow end of the pool), or swims completely under him through his legs (if he’s treading water in the deep end of the pool).
4. The game continues until all the players are frozen. The last person to be frozen is IT for the next game.

Variation:

Body Part Tag

1. Select one player to stay outside the pool and by the Chooser. The Chooser acts as judge if there are any questionable tags.
2. Have everyone else get in the pool is chosen as the Tagger.
3. The Chooser selects a body part (e.g.: head, foot, knee, leg, etc.)and yells out that part.
4. The players try to avoid being tagged by the Tagger on the specified body part.
5. Anytime the Chooser says another body part, that becomes the Tagger’s new target.
6. Players who are correctly tagged join the Tagger in pursuing the remaining players.
7. The game continues until everyone is frozen.

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Water Volleyball

Style: Competitive

Type: Pool Party Games

What You’ll Need:

• A swimming pool
• A volley ball or beach ball
• A volleyball net

How to play:

1. The rules of regular volleyball apply
2. Divide the players into two teams
3. Have one team serve the ball over the net.
4. Give the other team three tries to hits the ball back over the net.
5. If the ball touches the water before going over the net, it’s returned to the other team.
6. If a serving team can keep the opposing team from returning the ball, they score a point.
7. The ball must stay within the pool boundaries or else a side out results.
8. First team to get 15 points wins.

Variations:

Inner Tube Volleyball

• Instead of standing have the players sit on inner tubes.

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Watermelon Relay Pool Game

Style: Competitive

Type: Pool Party Games

What You’ll Need:

• A swimming pool
• 1 watermelon per team

How to play:

1. Divide the kids into two teams.
2. Have a kid from each team get into the pool in at one end. Float a watermelon in front of each kid.
3. On the word, “Go!,” each kid has to push the watermelon to the other side of the pool, but must not have their feet touching the bottom of the pool when they’re pushing.
4. When they reach the other side the next teammate in line takes the next lap and pushes the watermelon back to the other end of the pool.
5. This continues until each kid has had turn.
6. The team that finishes first wins

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